Taxi driver wounded but foils two robbers

BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO

ILOILO City – A taxi driver ended up in a hospital after successfully fending off two passengers who stabbed him.

The 42-year-old Hernando Pagulong of Lopez Jaena Street, Barangay Poblacion, Pototan, Iloilo is now confined at the West Visayas State University Medical Center.

According to Senior Inspector Herbert Ballego, Jaro police chief, the taxi driver picked up two male passengers in Barangay Democracia, Jaro district around 12:20 a.m. on Sunday.

As the taxi was moving, the passenger on the front seat pulled out a knife and stabbed Pagulong several times without any provocation.

Despite the wounds on his chest and abdomen, the driver was able to shout for help, prompting the passengers to scamper away.

“We could not yet establish the motive. The driver could not identify the assailants, too,” said Ballego.

He ruled out robbery as motive of the crime because the culprits had taken nothing from Pagulong.

Pagulong was driving a taxi of Light of Glory, one of the biggest taxi companies in Iloilo City./PN